A recent Philadelphia Inquirer news article ("Not Children’s
Play, 9/17/2017") bemoaned the fact that children specialty stores are closing
and begging the question “Are there enough babies and young children to support
existing retailers and newcomers?” Well, finally somebody noticed?
Of course, the finger is pointed at a falling
birth rate, as well as that #1 fiend -- the internet -- which allows e-tailers
to sell their wares cheaper than brick and mortar stores, thereby causing a drop in sales at stores such as The Children's Place, Justice and Gymboree, which is closing
hundreds of stores in an effort to survive after bankruptcy. And Toys “R” Us (owner of Babies “R” Us) also
has filed for bankruptcy claiming it needs to revamp its long-term debt.
But let’s peel the onion back a little further. What fueled that falling birth rate? Would more customers have helped the bottom
line? They certainly could not have hurt
it. In 2014 the U.S. estimated abortion
rate was 926,190 (National Right to Life). Is there even a remote possibility that if
these stores had the opportunity to peddle their wares to almost a million more
children that year (and in the previous years since Rose v Wade) that perhaps –
just perhaps – the children’s market for goods would have remained sustainable?
Gymboree was founded in 1976. Think of all the children that were aborted
that year (1,179,000). Conceivably, their deaths
might have played a part in Gymboree’s ultimate demise as these aborted
children would not grow up to have their own children and then
grandchildren, so the lack of original sales was then compounded. It’s sad to talk of
children in a dollars and cents connotation and maybe this is an over
simplification of more complex economic issues that these businesses faced. However, it is noted in a Life News.com 2010
article that Toys “R” Us was dropped from Life Decisions International’s boycott list once the store stopped funding Planned
Parenthood. That cannot excuse the fact
that prior to that time, Toys “R” Us, a company which relies solely on sales of
children’s toys, clothes, videos, etc., was donating to Planned Parenthood, an organization that takes very seriously its
task to remove those same children from society. I did not matriculate at Wharton, nor do I
have a Harvard MBA, but I have to question the strategic thinking of the Board of Directors that thought that was a good
idea.
And while many of these children’s stores may have had no affiliation with Planned Parenthood, how many of them actually took a
front-and-center stand against abortion?
Perhaps if the titans of these children-centric companies had spoken up
for the rights of their future customers, they would not be facing extinction
now.
